LI Business News Highlights LIU’s Progress on Veterinary Technologist Program and College of Veterinary Medicine

Long Island University’s bold plans to expand its academic offering to include a four-year veterinary technologist program this fall, and the region’s first College of Veterinary Medicine, continues to attract attention.

The scale of these significant initiatives was the recent subject of a comprehensive article in Long Island Business News headlined: “Pet Projects.”

As the piece explained, in our region Suffolk County Community College on Long Island and LaGuardia Community College in Queens provide only two-year veterinary technician programs. LIU Post’s veterinary technologist program is the first four-year program in our area.

The closest veterinary medical schools are Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, New York, Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine near Boston, and the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine in Philadelphia.

“There is a need both regionally and nationally for more trained vet techs and more doctors of veterinary medicine,” Jon Schneider, LIU’s director of public relations, told the magazine.

The article details what vet technologists currently earn in the region, and outlined job prospects in this growing field.

Once opened, LIU’s veterinary college would become the 31st veterinary medical school in the country.

“Last year, there were 7,000 applicants for just 4,100 seats at veterinary medical programs, which leads a lot of people to pursue their vet education overseas,” Schneider explained. “There is a real need for more domestic veterinary programs.”

In May, Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled plans to invest $12 million into the $40 million project as part of New York’s investment in economic development projects to turn Long Island into a research corridor for science and medicine.